After a good night's rest we headed to the beach, with no
intent to leave though. We stayed a few days, just soaking in the
sun. Once we felt we'd had enough rest, we went down to the
Fuchsia harbor. We went down to the end of the dock. I pulled out
the pokeball that Yoshio had lent me. I threw it in the water. A
blue light shot out of the water and a large, dinosaur like
creature appeared. I pulled out Dexter.

"Lapras. The transport pokemon. A pokemon that has been
over-hunted almost to extinction. It can ferry people across
water." Dexter said.

We got on the stone platform on lapras' back and lapras
started to swim away from shore. We sailed for a long while.
Luckily we had packed many supplies because we didn't know how
long this trip would take. As we were sailing some tentacool came
around, but they soon learned their lesson when pikachu gave them
what-for with an electric blast. Andrew and I each caught a
tentacool. We saw some people surfing on large aquatic pokemon
such as blastoise, dewgong, and starmie. A few people came around
to challenge us but they quickly learned about water pokemon's
weakness to electricity. We were at sea for two days when we
finally hit shore. I put the lapras back in the pokeball and we
looked around. There was a sign that said "Welcome to
Seafoam Islands". We looked around until it got dark. We had
found a cave but did not enter. We set camp near the cave.

"Looks like lapras won't be able to go through these
islands." I said.

"So what do we do?" Andrew asked.

"We go through the caves and see if we can get to the
other side of the islands." I replied.

"We do?" Andrew asked.

"Yep. Tomorrow morning, we go spelunking." I said.

The tropical climate felt good. There were many palm trees
around. We got a few coconuts and ate well.

"I read a book about a guy who got stranded on an island
and had to fend for himself. He made a house out of palm trees
and bamboo and ate coconuts all the time." Andrew said.

"The only difference between us and that book, is that we
have a mode of transportation to get to a town if we need
to." I said.

We got a good night's sleep and the next morning we headed
into the cave. The cave was well lit. There were many holes in
the ceiling that let the sunlight through. But whenever there was
a dark spot, Andrew would let charmeleon out to light the way. We
saw and captured many water type pokemon. Pikachu was having a
great time because of his effectiveness against water. After a
long day of walking, we still hadn't found the way out and it was
too late for us to turn back. We had found a large section of the
cave that had a clear pool of fresh water. We set camp next to
the pool. We cleaned up and ate.

"How long do you think this cave goes on for?"
Andrew asked.

"I don't know. Probably another day or so." I said.

We rested up. The next morning we headed out again. Soon we
noticed that we were going downhill. The light began to dim and
soon it was getting too dark to see. Andrew let charmeleon out.
The fire on charmeleon's tail lit the cave up. We followed the
cave until we found ourselves inside another large area in the
cave. It was very cold. There were blocks of ice in a large pool
water. The only way across the water was to hop across the
blocks. Andrew produced a stick which charmeleon lit on fire.
Andrew pulled charmeleon back into a pokeball. We hopped across
the ice. When we got to the other side we found a large nest.
There was ice and frozen sticks in t but nothing else.

"I wonder what kind of pokemon made this nest?"
Andrew asked.

"Must be an ice pokemon." I said. I pulled out
Dexter.

"Not enough information to find out what pokemon this
is." Dexter said.

"I guess we'll never know." I said.

We moved on. We exited the large area. Andrew let charmeleon
out. Soon the light began to increase and we were on an incline
again. Andrew called charmeleon back when we could see. Soon the
ground evened out and there were holes in the ceiling again. We
could see the sky through the holes. As we were walking we fell
into a hole.

"Why didn't I see that?" I asked myself.

"Because you weren't looking." Andrew said.

I was about to smack him when I realized that he was right. I
wasn't looking. We had to do more navigating and more pokemon
battles but we finally emerged from the cave into daylight. We
were on another beach but on a different island. In the distance,
over the water, we saw Cinnabar Island. The sun was beginning to
set. I let lapras out of its pokeball and we set out towards
Cinnabar Island. We reached Cinnabar at nightfall. We went to the
pokemon center and put our pokemon in the rejuvinator. I went to
the phone and called Yoshio. We made a remote trade. I got gengar
back and I sent him his lapras again. Alexia had left me another
note. She had already defeated the gym leader Blaine and moved
on. She said that Pallet town was just across the bay to the
north and the final gym is in Viridian. She had drawn a small
flame on the back of the page. That night I slept well with
thoughts of another badge in my mind.